The Emmy nominations were announced yesterday, for a ceremony scheduled in September that may or may not happen, depending on what happens with the SAG-AFTRA strike vote this morning. Unsurprisingly, The White Lotus was one of the most nominated series with 23 nods, including a nomination for Outstanding Drama Series, writing and directing nods for creator Mike White, and they dominated the dramatic acting categories with nine nominations, for F. Murray Abraham, Michael Imperioli, Theo James, Will Sharpe, Meghann Fahey, Aubrey Plaza, Jennifer Coolidge, Sabrina Impacciatore, and Simona Tabasco. 

 

That’s almost the entire principal cast; the only principal cast members who didn’t get nominated are Adam DiMarco, Haley Lu Richardson, and Beatrice Grannò. Sorry to them, I guess. Granted, Succession still leads the drama pack, as Lainey predicted, barely eking by The White Lotus with 24 nominations. In a quirky result, the Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series category is made up entirely of actors from Succession and The White Lotus.

I have to admit, I was a bit surprised that The White Lotus ended up in the drama category. Last year, season one competed as a “limited series or anthology”, even though season two was greenlit before the finale of season one, so the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences knew by the time Emmy nominations were announced in July 2022 that The White Lotus was NOT a limited series. Anyway, this year it was slotted into the series categories as a drama. Am I the only person who thinks The White Lotus is a comedy? To be fair, I also think Succession is a comedy, and The Bear is a drama, and this circles back to my “stop judging genre by runtime” argument. Episodes of The White Lotus run fifty minutes or longer, so it MUST be a drama.

 

I am glad, though, that The White Lotus survived the Emmys’ trend toward recency bias—it aired last winter, practically a decade ago in Emmys terms—to end up one of the most nominated series, even if I do think it’s in the wrong category. I’m especially happy to see Sabrina Impacciatore and Simona Tabasco get nominated, and equally bummed that Beatrice Grannò, who plays one half of the Mia-Lucia scammer duo, wasn’t nominated, too. 

In re-watching season two, the most compelling storylines come from the tension of the Sicilian locals dealing with the wealthy tourists who occupy the White Lotus resort on their island. The first season didn’t really address the tension between the local population and the tourists—because in Hawaii, it comes with a side of colonialism that perhaps Mike White wasn’t comfortable tackling—but season two prominently features the local Sicilian women who work in and around the resort, struggling to make ends meet amidst the exploitative wealth of the resort. Even knowing the twist is coming, it’s still extremely satisfying to see Lucia’s plan come together. Succession is probably going to steamroll through every category for its last season, but watching Lucia Greco succeed is every bit as satisfying as seeing Kendall Roy fail.

Check out the full list of nominees here.